MAIN IDEA
Business is the ultimate team sport. It always has been and it always will. That's why you can never stop learning because in business, the game is constantly changing and evolving. To keep moving forward, you have to keep learning and growing at a personal level.
Specifically, to excel in business today, you need a Real-Life MBA rather than a purely theoretical or more conventional MBA. A Real-Life MBA will require than you master three competencies:
You need to know about the game – how companies need to organize and operate to win in today's marketplace.
You must be able to form and lead a great team – because today it always takes a team to wow the customer.
You have to know how to manage your career – since in today's marketplace you won't stay with one company forever.
"Practically everybody, practically everywhere, is making something, selling something, creating something, building something. This is the era of perpetual entrepreneurism, personal and professional, in organizations both small and massive, in economies old and brand-new. Stand still at your peril. Or to be more precise, stop learning at your peril. Better yet, embrace learning, and watch what happens. Excitement. Growth. Success."
– Jack and Suzy Welch
JACK WELCH was CEO of General Electric for 21 years. During that time, he grew GE's revenues from $25 billion to $130 billion, the company's income from $1.5 billion to $15 billion and General Electric's market capitalization to $400 billion. After retiring from GE, Jack Welch has written two best-sellers (Jack: Straight From the Gut and Winning) and founded a business school offering executive education and management training. Jack Welch is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
SUZY WELCH is a television commentator and business journalist. She writes business columns for Business Week, Fortune magazine and The New York Times. She was also a co-author of Winning and the author of 10-10-10: A Life Transforming Idea. She started her career at The Miami Herald and later served as editor-in-chief of the Harvard Business Review. Suzy Welch is a graduate of Harvard University and Harvard Business School.
The Web site for this book is at www.facebook.com/thereallifemba.
This is a summary and not a critique or a review of the book. It does not offer judgment or opinion on the content of the book. This summary may not be organized chapter-wise but is an overview of the main ideas, view points and arguments from the book as a whole. This means that the organization of this summary is not a representation of the book.
To operate and win in today's marketplace, you need to get everyone aligned around a strategy which makes sense. You also need to know marketing and finance and how to use a crisis to generate positive gains.
One of the most important contributions a manager can make to a company is to create a dynamic environment where people feel motivated and empowered to do their best work. The alternative is to have a workplace which people dread having to come to every day.
To create a dynamic environment, all it takes is:
Alignment & Leadership